I heard Sonny Boy blow!

One of the most interesting characters in blues history...

...and one who epitomises everything I find engrossing about it, is Sonny Boy Williamson. To be exact, Sonny Boy Williamson II. Actually, to be even more exact, Aleck or Alex or Willie or Rice Miller, or Willie Ford. (When I say exact, I mean as exact as Sonny Boy II cared to be about himself…)

He was also known variously as Sonny Boy Williams, Willie Williamson, Little Boy Blue, Harmonica Blowin' Slim, The Goat and Footsie. 

Footsie?

However, I hear you ask, if Aleck was known as Sonny Boy Williamson II, was there ever a Sonny Boy Williamson I? Yes, there certainly was a Sonny Boy the First and he was born John Lee Curtis Williamson in 1914, dying in 1948.

Like Sonny Boy II, Sonny Boy I was a harp player and singer who pioneered the instrument as a solo player. He had a great deal of success with his many recordings and kept such illustrious company as Muddy Waters throughout his relatively short professional life.

So, Sonny Boy I and II were both significant harp players and singers, but they weren’t even remotely related.

Why then did Sonny Boy II ‘borrow’ Sonny Boy I’s stage name?

Well, if you thought “money?”, then you’ve guessed right.

As this very informative article puts it:

By the early ’40s, he was the star of KFFA`s King Biscuit Time, the first live blues radio show to hit the American airwaves. As one of the major ruses to occur in blues history, his sponsor - the Interstate Grocery Company - felt they could push more sacks of their King Biscuit Flour with Miller posing as Chicago harmonica star John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson.

It was a rather clumsy deception but it obviously worked, as the name stuck with Miller and there don’t seem to have been any lawsuits. Although the Insterstate Grocery Company didn’t actually pay him much, they allowed him to plug his gigs on air and this helped push up his earnings by getting bigger crowds to see him.

Indeed, such ruses involving aliases and stage names weren’t uncommon, with luminaries like the late, great John Lee Hooker recording for different record companies under a variety of names early on in his career.

[As well as his own name, he recorded under the names of Texas Slim, Delta John, Birmingham Sam and his Magic Guitar, Johnny Williams, The Boogie Man, Johnny Lee (getting slightly less imaginative now), John Lee, and even John Lee Booker and John Lee Cooker. The latter two names must have taken several hours to think up…]

Anyway, to his grave, Sonny Boy II dubbed himself the ‘real Sonny Boy Williamson’, in spite of appropriating Sonny Boy I’s stage name whilst #1 was at the height of his career.

It probably helped both men that Sonny Boy #2 didn’t start recording until after #1 was dead and buried, although his recording career didn’t exactly set the world alight. In fact, somewhat ironically, it wasn’t until his contract was sold on to Checker Records – a subsidiary of the famous Chess Records Company – because he was so difficult to work with, that he started to get blues chart success.

Recording with the likes of Elmore James, Willie Dixon and Robert Lockwood Jr, Sonny Boy II wrote and released many songs which have since become blues standards – all marked by witty, sometimes desolate lyrics, a quavering delivery and sharp piercing harp lines. Notable successes include ‘Eyesight to the Blind’, ‘Help Me’, ‘Checkin’ up on my Baby’, Nine Below Zero’, ‘Don’t Start me to Talkin’’ and ‘Bring it on Home’, the latter covered by Led Zeppelin on their second album, but attributed to Page and Plant…

Sonny Boy II was a real showman. He’d play with the harp inside his mouth and even with his nose.

He spent a lot of time in Europe towards the end of his career - in common with many of his contemporaries. Indeed, at one stage he appears to have been thinking about applying for UK citizenship, and even wrote a song about it.

It wasn't just a distinctive vocal and harp style that Sonny Boy Williamson II worked on. Over the years, Williamson had acquired a rather eccentric image, sporting a checkerboard suit, a bowler hat (occasionally a beret), a furled umbrella and a briefcase which held his harps and a bottle of whiskey.

And yes, Sonny Boy #2 liked a drink…in fact, as well as being a drinker, he was a gambler,  an occasional brawler (wiry, but 6 feet 2 inches tall and often with a straight razor to hand, although he was no Little Walter!) and a ladies man, with a wicked sense of humour,

He was backed by some of the early UK beat groups when he toured there and dubbed the Animals the ‘Mammimals’ and, with reference to the Yardbirds, he had this to say:

“These British want to play the blues so bad…and they play the blues so bad!”

One of the more amusing stories about his visits to the UK is that he once set fire to his hotel room, whilst trying to cook a rabbit in a coffee percolator. True? We'll never know.

He died in 1965 soon after he returned to the US after recording and extensive gigging in the UK, but even his gravestone is somewhat ambivalent – not about his name, but about the year of his birth. Although it states 1908, Sonny Boy #2 claimed it was 1897 or 1899, although census evidence suggests it was 1912.

If it was 1912, as seems most likely, then 53 years of hard living had certainly taken their toll!

However, amongst all the hard living and roguish antics, Sonny Boy II was generous when it came to helping his fellow players. He mentored a young Howlin’ Wolf – his brother-in-law – and also helped spread the word about a guitarist and singer who went on to be known as BB King.

So, Sonny Boy II was many things throughout his life, some of them of his own invention, but his one constant was his music. The more you dig into his life story, the more you find that much of what he claimed wasn't entirely truthful, but it was told in such a cohesive manner, with truth and deceit so carefully entwined, that it was never questioned. However, doubts are now being raised and there's a fascinating article here that exposes some of Miller's subterfuge. It could well be that the true story of his life and career turns out to be even more interesting and convoluted than the one he left us with.

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